okay, friday night wasn’t so much renaissance. but lots of the rest was.
saturday, had to get up early because
dnereverri,
pxr5,
cosmicdolphin, and i were going up to
renfaire, a short jaunt north, and i’d agreed to drive, which entailed driving south to hyde park, then out to oak park, and then up to wisconsin.
getting up at 6:30 was kinda rough on only three hours’ sleep. at least i wasn’t particularly hung over.
got up there right around ten. got complete rock star parking: i mean they waved us up to the very front of the parking lawn. i don’t know if they gave us rock star parking because we were all dressed in garb or what, but the only other people getting out of cars in the rock-star rows were also in garb, so maybe so! it was a pleasant surprise, anyways.
then we sort of puttered around the faire all day, mocked the awful accents, chortled that sticks makes food better (but, oddly, had no food on a stick), bought some things, and wandered around some more. sat around in pxr5’s much-adored — deservedly so —
sky chairs for half an hour or so, which was really pleasant and relaxing, even if it did inspire jealousy in me of those who have load-bearing rafters to which they can bolt such chairs, instead of apartments where the management would probably disapprove of such modifications.
found some really pretty pottery bowls, of which i bought a set of four from one of the vendors. they’re the perfect size for soup, or something like a cucumber salad. i’m very pleased to have found them. and the price was even reasonable. yay pretty dishes!
i also picked up a
drop spindle from a spinning shop at the faire. i had then and have now every intent to send it to
kcraigs as a gift (though not a very surprise one, considering she reads this blog and now i’ve just blown it), but, you know, the lady, she gave it to me with a couple of hanks of wool to play with, so i started playing with it a little today and spun a little bit because, i mean, it was sitting there taunting me. kiyoshi found the drop spindle to be sufficiently interesting that he needed to be within five feet, but scary enough to not get any closer. this yarn was slightly more uniform in width than the last stuff i made, but i can’t say it was any more speedy or less prone to getting too twisted or not twisted enough. alas.
but that was only an interim activity. no, i spent my day cleaning — until i got bored, which was pretty early on, in fairness — and then i made the soap i started earlier this week, and then i made perfume.
the soap ended up being a lemongrass-palmarosa blend, of which i colored half yellow and the other half a dusty rose, then swirled. the EOs accellerated the trace a bit so it ended up a really thick mix and i’m not sure how the swirl will turn out. it smells really good, though.
but this was not enough thingmaking for me today, and i thought that the amber and copal — that i got at the faire yesterday for incense — sitting on my kitchen counter smelled so good i would see if i could make perfume out of them somehow. so i did. yay me:
3/4 tsp. copal
3/4 tsp. honey amber
crush copal and amber in mortar and pestle, then add 1/2 tsp. of blend (resembles damp sand, and is sticky) to:
10 grams jojoba
to this, add:
9 drops sandalwood (santalum album) essential oil
9 drops ylang-ylang II essential oil
9 drops jasmine absolute
3 drops rose otto
separately, melt together
90 grams beeswax
90 grams shea butter
80 grams jojoba
when oils are melted, remove from heat and allow to cool until they start to set up. add jojoba-resin-EO mixture to the oil mixture. transfer to a mixing bowl and use a whisk attachment on a hand mixer to whip to a light consistency — may need to put bowl in refrigerator to help cool more to whip in more air.
fills most of two 4 oz. jars. or maybe they’re 3 oz jars, i’ve forgotten.
anyways, it smells really, really good. at least, i think so.
so, spinning wool, renfaireing, making soap, and making perfume. it was a very Renaissance weekend!
